LONDON: Two children among 11 people wounded in a knife attack died in hospital after being stabbed by a teenager who rampaged through a Taylor Swift children’s dance and yoga workshop in the UK seaside town of Southport on Monday. The wounded include two adults and nine children, six of whom are said to be critical.
Armed officers, 13 ambulances, and an air ambulance were sent to the scene, where armed police arrested the 17-year-old male suspect, originally from Cardiff, and seized a knife. He has been taken to a police station and questioned. Police said they were not treating the attack as “terror-related” and not looking for anyone else.
According to Merseyside police, emergency services were called just before 11.50am local time to reports of stabbing at a property on Hart Street and “there are a number of reported casualties”.
The attack happened at a summer holiday two-hour yoga, dance and bracelet-making workshop aimed at children taking place at Hart Space from 10am to 12pm. Hart Space has two studios and offers yoga, meditation and antenatal classes. It is thought around 25 children aged three to 12 were present at the sold-out workshop when the attack happened.
North West Ambulance Service said it treated eight people at the scene with stab injuries and took them to a number of hospitals, including Alder Hey Children’s Hospital.
Colin Parry, owner of Masters Vehicle Body Repairs on Hart Street, who called police, said he believed six or seven “young girls” had been stabbed. He told PA news agency: “The mothers are coming here now and screaming. It is like a scene from a horror movie. It’s like something from America, not like sunny Southport.”
Eyewitnesses spoke about how children ran into the street from the studio covered in blood as residents warned each other on WhatsApp groups to lock their windows and doors following reports of a man “running around stabbing people”.
Bare Varathan (35), who owns a corner shop on Hart Street, said: “I saw seven to 10 kids outside the nursery. They were injured, bleeding. They were on the road. They had been stabbed, here, here, here, everywhere.”
Armed officers, 13 ambulances, and an air ambulance were sent to the scene, where armed police arrested the 17-year-old male suspect, originally from Cardiff, and seized a knife. He has been taken to a police station and questioned. Police said they were not treating the attack as “terror-related” and not looking for anyone else.
According to Merseyside police, emergency services were called just before 11.50am local time to reports of stabbing at a property on Hart Street and “there are a number of reported casualties”.
The attack happened at a summer holiday two-hour yoga, dance and bracelet-making workshop aimed at children taking place at Hart Space from 10am to 12pm. Hart Space has two studios and offers yoga, meditation and antenatal classes. It is thought around 25 children aged three to 12 were present at the sold-out workshop when the attack happened.
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Colin Parry, owner of Masters Vehicle Body Repairs on Hart Street, who called police, said he believed six or seven “young girls” had been stabbed. He told PA news agency: “The mothers are coming here now and screaming. It is like a scene from a horror movie. It’s like something from America, not like sunny Southport.”
Eyewitnesses spoke about how children ran into the street from the studio covered in blood as residents warned each other on WhatsApp groups to lock their windows and doors following reports of a man “running around stabbing people”.
Bare Varathan (35), who owns a corner shop on Hart Street, said: “I saw seven to 10 kids outside the nursery. They were injured, bleeding. They were on the road. They had been stabbed, here, here, here, everywhere.”
